Sterile sanitary pads are widely employed, both in hospitals and in the home. The pads can be maturity, surgical, hemorrhoid, or feminine hygiene pads, for example, with or without an adhesive backing for securing to the body. U.S. Pat. No. 4,040,424, issued to James R. Hunt on Aug. 9, 1977 discloses one type of sanitary pad which is designed to be enclosed by an outer envelope to maintain sterility prior to use.
Heretofore, sterile sanitary pads have typically been packaged in a sealed paper wrapping which is sealed at the top and bottom of the wrapping and down the middle of the wrapping. The paper wrapping does not allow easy handling of the package while opening and can easily result in contamination of the wrapped pad.
In opening a conventional paper wrapped sanitary pad, one end of the package must be torn open initially. The package must then be torn down the side, which can result in contamination of the pad and, in one example in the hospital environment, an inability to place the pad on a sterile surgical field because of the loss of sterility.
In the hospital environment, the time consuming and difficult task of opening the conventional paper package in an attempt to preserve its sterility increases the "turn over time" in surgery. The "turn over time" is the time allotted between the end of one surgical case and the beginning of another surgical case. This time would include the time necessary to remove a patient, clean up the surgical area and prepare the next patient for surgery. Naturally, it is not possible to perform any surgical procedures during this period and therefore the facilities of the hospital and the time of the surgeon is wasted. It is therefore desirable to minimize this "turn over time", while maintaining professional standards.
Outside the hospital environment, the time and effort necessary to open the conventional paper package can be excessive. This is particularly true in the use of maturity pads where an elderly patient may have trouble even opening the package, particularly to maintain the sterility of the pad.
A need therefore exists for an improved packaging technique for sanitary pads which makes the package easier and faster to open than currently available designs while further permitting better control and maintenance of the sterility of the pad while opening the package and placing the pad in the necessary location. These advantages will reduce the "turn over time" in hospital environments and provide a cost reduction to the patient.